Porphyry In intellectual character, the work is indisputably Greek, following Euhe-
merist ideas of the origin of the gods, and combining elements drawn from
Phoenician and Egyptian traditions. But it does also, beyond question, show
some knowledge of individual terms and of divine names in Phoenician.
This work was known to Porphyry, who quotes from it in the second book
of hisOnAbstinence: ‘‘In major crises, such as wars or plagues or droughts, the
Phoenicians used to make a sacrifice dedicated to Kronos, from those dear-
est to them. There are abundant examples of such sacrifices in thePhoinikikē
Historiawhich Sanchuniathon wrote in the Phoenician language, and Philo
the Byblian translated into Greek in eight books.’’^3 Eusebius, who quotes this
passage, also attests that Porphyry referred to Sanchuniathon, and to Philo’s
translation, in hisAgainsttheChristians.^4 Neither passage, however, shows that
Porphyry knew anything other than Philo’s Greek version; whether he will
none the less have read this piece of Phoenician tradition differently from
any other Greek intellectual of his time remains to be discussed.
Some four decades before Porphyry’s birth, there had occurred the trans-
formation of Tyre into a Roman colony, among the earliest of a long series
of such transformations which in the next half-century were to affect nu-
merous cities in the Near Eastern provinces, and to produce even greater
ambiguities in ‘‘ethnicity’’ and cultural identity than were already present.^5
Colonial status ought to have entailed the public use of Latin (whether it
stimulated in any way the personal use of Latin in daily life, or the reading
of Latin literature, remains quite obscure); it certainly brought with it a re-
structuring of the local constitution, henceforward headed by two annual
duoviri(a board of two magistrates), more often visible, in Greek translation,
as twostratēgoi.
There seems to be nothing in Porphyry’s works which suggests any ac-
quaintance with Latin culture or even (strictly speaking) any knowledge of
Latin. It is paradoxical, therefore, that such knowledge is exhibited by a
Tyrian who had been born at least a couple of decades before the grant of
colonial status, the jurist Ulpian. As is well known, he speaks with pride of
the long history of hispatria, and of its acquisition of colonial status.^6 We can
be certain also that he came from an established family of Greek-speaking
.De abst. , , , also quoted by Eusebius,Praep. Ev.,,.
. Eusebius,Praep.Ev.,,(Porphyry,FGrH, no. , F. Philo,FGrH, no. ,
F. ).
. F. Millar, ‘‘The RomanColoniaeof the Near East: A Study of Cultural Relations,’’ in
H. Solin and M. Kajava, eds.,Roman Eastern Policyand Other Studies on Roman History(),
( chapter of the present volume).
.Dig.,,.